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Colorado Edujobs status still uncertain

The state’s school finance chief said Thursday that it remains somewhat unclear if Colorado will be eligible for money from the new $10 billion Edujobs program.

Vody Herrmann, assistant commissioner in the Colorado Department of Education, said, “We don’t have that answer yet.” But, she added, federal education officials “really believe states will be able to meet the maintenance of effort” requirements of the new law, and that those requirements provide sufficient flexibility.

“We’ll see how it all plays out. I think it’s their intention that everyone will meet it in some way,” Herrmann said.

U.S. Department of Education officials held a conference call with state officials Thursday to explain the program. Application forms will be available Friday and are due in Washington by Sept. 9.

The question of Colorado’s eligibility first surfaced Wednesday when Herrmann and education Commissioner Dwight Jones briefed the State Board of Education (see story). At issue is whether Colorado meets requirements related to how much state funding has been budgeted for education, including state colleges.

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According to figures released by the federal Department of Education, Colorado school districts are eligible to receive a total of $159,521,991 from the $10 billion Edujobs program, an amount supposedly sufficient to fund 2,600 jobs. (State-by-state list from DOE.)

But the hard fact is that no one knows how many Colorado teachers – or other school employees – have lost or will lose their jobs this school year because of budget cuts.

“There are no hard numbers,” said Deborah Fallin, director of public relations for the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. Neither the CEA, the Colorado Association of School Boards nor the Colorado Association of School Executives have compiled any numbers. The Colorado Department of Education also hasn’t done so.

Part of the difficulty of estimating personnel cuts is that Colorado’s 178 school districts have used a wide variety of tactics to deal with budget problems, including layoffs, non-renewal of probationary teachers, elimination or freezing of vacant positions, salary freezes and even furlough days. In some cases, employees may have lost existing jobs but been able to move into other positions.

Fallin also noted that because the school year is just starting, districts don’t yet know their exact personnel needs. That situation won’t clear up for a few weeks, after districts have a better handle on actual enrollment.

The group’s compilation of news reports covered 76 of the state’s 178 school districts, but those 76 districts have nearly 90 percent of state student enrollment. Based on those reports, the project estimated those districts made a total of $297.3 million in budget cuts.

The group also compiled information about staffing, classroom impacts and other budget cuts.

Education News Colorado cross-referenced information about staff reductions from the project’s two reports and came up with a total of 1,825 jobs affected by budget cuts.

However, because of the way the project compiled its information, that figure includes layoffs, attrition, position freezes and other staffing actions in multiple job classifications so it does not give any direct indication of teaching positions lost.

According to CDE data, there were just over 50,000 teachers in the state’s school districts in the fall of 2009.

The federal Edujobs numbers are projections based on statistics such as states’ budgets, school enrollments and average educator salaries. A statement from the staff of the House Committee on Education and Labor this week said, “Based on analysis from the Council of Economic Advisors of projected state budget shortfalls for FY 2011, we estimated that as many as 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs could be at risk across the country in the upcoming school year.”

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Education Secretary Arne Duncan was asked about the jobs-saved estimate of 161,000 during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

“Well, we always said 300,000 was the high end. We always said between 100,000 and 300,000. We had a broad range there, as you know … because this was a moving target. And we think this number is fairly solid, and this is based upon actual – you know the need and cuts we’re seeing around the country. And we think this is a good – again, nothing can be absolutely firm. We think this is a good estimate of the potential cuts that can be saved with these funds,” Duncan said.

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Chalkbeat Colorado

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The House committee staff statement about the bill noted, “These estimates should be viewed as provisional and subject to margins of error.”

Edujobs money will be available for personnel costs – from principals to teachers to custodians – in school buildings but can’t be used for district administrators, Herrmann said. While the intent of the program is that the money be used in the current school year, the spending period is 27 months. But funds can’t be used for district personnel costs incurred before the law was signed on Tuesday.

“It is one-time money,” Herrmann said.

Duncan was asked about that in the media call earlier this week. “We really wanted to avoid a huge catastrophe this year. As you know, the economy is slowly starting to bounce back and we’re hopeful we’ll be in a much better spot next year,” he said.

Even with Edujobs money, Colorado school districts likely will face tough budget decisions for 2011-12.

Herrmann told the state board Wednesday that state and local K-12 operating support could be $519 million less next school year than the $5.9 billion estimated to be called for by the school funding formula established in Amendment 23.

Meet the nine finalists for Tennessee Principal of the Year

From left: Docia Generette-Walker receives Tennessee's 2016 principal of the year honor from Education Commissioner Candice McQueen. Generette-Walker leads Middle College High School in Memphis. This year's winner will be announced in October.

Nine school leaders are up for an annual statewide award, including one principal from Memphis.

Tracie Thomas, a principal at White Station Elementary School, represents schools in Shelby County on the state’s list of finalists. Last year, Principal Docia Generette-Walker of Middle College High School in Memphis received the honor.

Building better principals has been a recent focus for Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen as roles of the school leaders change under school improvement efforts.

“Successful schools begin with great leaders, and these nine finalists represent some of the best in our state,” McQueen said. “The Principal of the Year finalists have each proven what is possible when school leaders hold students and educators to high expectations.”

The winner will be announced at the state department’s annual banquet in October, where the winner of Tennessee’s Teacher of the Year will also be announced.

Hickenlooper, on national TV, calls for bipartisanship on job training for high school graduates

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Sunday said Republicans and Democrats should work together to rethink how states are preparing high school graduates for the 21st century economy.

“It’s not a Republican or Democratic issue to say we want better jobs for our kids, or we want to make sure they’re trained for the new generation of jobs that are coming or beginning to appear,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat, appeared on the Sunday public affairs program alongside Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, to discuss their work on healthcare.

The Colorado governor brought up workforce training after moderator John Dickerson asked what issues besides healthcare both parties should be addressing.

“Two-thirds of our kids are never going to have a four-year college degree, and we really haven’t been able to prepare them to involve them in the economy where the new generations of jobs require some technical capability,” Hickenlooper said. “We need to look at apprenticeships. We need to look at all kinds of internships.”

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Hickenlooper has long supported a variety of education reform policies including charter schools and linking student test scores to teacher evaluations. Last fall he backed a new program that is expected to this year connect 250 Colorado high school students with paid job training.